Consumer Safety Complaints
Search 2,215,138 safety complaints filed by vehicle owners with NHTSA — including 138,663 crashes, 56,255 fires, and 8,561 deaths.
What is a NHTSA consumer complaint?
A consumer complaint is a free-form report filed by a vehicle owner directly to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) describing a safety concern about their vehicle. NHTSA collects these reports through its Vehicle Owner Defect Report (VOQ) system and publishes them publicly. Each complaint includes the affected component, the date and circumstances of the incident, whether the failure caused a crash or fire, and any reported injuries or deaths. The owner's full narrative description is included verbatim — NHTSA does not edit or moderate the descriptions.
The database below contains over 2,215,138 individual complaints. NHTSA's investigators monitor it for clusters of similar reports — when enough owners describe the same failure mode on the same vehicle, NHTSA may open a Preliminary Evaluation that can lead to a recall. Many of the largest recalls in U.S. history, including the Takata airbag recall and the Hyundai/Kia engine fire recalls, started as patterns visible in this complaint database years before they became formal recalls.
How to interpret what you read
A few principles for reading consumer complaints usefully:
- One complaint is anecdote; a hundred similar complaints is data. NHTSA does not investigate the truthfulness of any individual report — that's the job of the Office of Defects Investigation, which looks at the full pattern. When evaluating a vehicle, look for whether multiple owners describe the same chain of events.
- Crash, fire, injury, and death flags are owner-set. They are not verified by NHTSA. They are still useful as a filter, because owners who tick those boxes are typically reporting more serious incidents than those who don't.
- Component categories are NHTSA-assigned, not owner-assigned. NHTSA standardizes the component field so that complaints can be aggregated. The owner narrative often goes into more detail than the component category captures.
- Complaint volume scales with sales volume. A best-selling model will accumulate more raw complaints than a niche model even at the same defect rate. To compare across vehicles, look at complaints per 100,000 units sold, not raw counts.
If you've experienced a defect
File a complaint. NHTSA's investigators rely on this database to detect emerging defects, and useful complaints — specific, concrete, with dates and mileage and clear descriptions of what happened — feed directly into the agency's pattern detection. The form takes about 10 minutes and is at nhtsa.gov/recalls under "Report a Safety Problem." Your complaint becomes part of the same public record that this page is built from. Owners filing detailed VOQs are how recalls get triggered.
Read more from our blog
Showing 15,069 complaints for VOLVO
Incident date: Apr 30, 2024
Random airbag and seat belt restraint icon alerts. Code reader says footwell module not found. Also reports audio issue faults but audio works fine. Moved from Arizona to Washington. Now vehicle is subjected to lots of rain. Am worried air bags will not operate properly or go off without reason.
Incident date: May 13, 2024
The car self accerated while I was pulling into a parking spot and hit a cement wall. The brake sign came on and I braked. Damage to the front of vehicle and the collision sensor was demolished.
Incident date: May 27, 2024
Emission system failure causing check engine light to turn on.
Incident date: May 21, 2024
I've owned several vehicles in my life. The Volvo XC 90 advanced "safety features" have caused more near accidents in the first 10 months of owning this vehicle than anything I have ever experienced. The collission prevention and auto-braking features cannot be disabled on this car and they are defective and extremely dangerous. On sevreal occasions (four in the last two weeks alone) the auto-b... Read more
Incident date: May 21, 2024
My vehicle constantly experiences the death wobble meaning front end suspension experiences violent shaking making it difficult to stay the course and won't stop till vehicle comes to a lower speed but imagine I'm going 75 it takes along time to slow down and very scary
Incident date: May 21, 2024
The car caught on fire driving it to my brother's house to babysit his kids while #4 being born prematurely with complications at southwest ms regional medical center. I lost almost 15,000 in equity and my husband recently passed things inside I can't replace. It was about 11:00 at night and I made a uturn to stop at gas station and truck was already on fire. Many police officers and innocent byst... Read more
Fire
1 injured
Incident date: May 22, 2024
Blue Cruise cannot see thru my glasses at night and constantly disengages the Cruise Control. This is currently under a trial subscription and cannot be cancelled nor can you override this feature without disengaging Lane Departure or Lane Centering, both of which are “standard” features.
Incident date: May 20, 2024
The sound system of the vehicle failed. No alerts for cross path detection, no parking alerts, no Bluetooth calling, no gps guidance, no turn signal sound, no ability to call through the sos feature, and no radio. There is no value to the safety features because there is no audible alert for anything. The when you select radio after listening to Bluetooth audio it glitches and turns back to the pr... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Acura MDX. The contact stated that while his wife was traveling on Interstate 75 and driving 85 MPH, the vehicle independently slowed down, failed to accelerate, and shut off. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, who was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contac... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Acura MDX. The contact stated that while his wife was traveling on Interstate 75 and driving 85 MPH, the vehicle independently slowed down, failed to accelerate, and shut off. There were no warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer, who was unable to duplicate the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not contac... Read more
Incident date: Feb 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2019 Toyota Camry. The contact stated that while refueling the vehicle, gasoline started leaking underneath the vehicle onto the ground. The cause of the failure was not yet determined. The manufacturer and local dealer were notified of the failure, but no assistance was provided. The approximate failure mileage was 58,000.
Incident date: May 19, 2024
The AEB system engages periodically with any obstacles while at a high speed. Suffered whiplash and anxiety as problems occurs without warning. Vehicle is available for inspection. Unprovoked Braking at high speeds on highway can be dangerous. Dealer has not responded to complaints of the issue on 2-3 service appointments. Dealer states there are no codes and no follow up was given. No previous e... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Ford Explorer. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V031000 (Structure) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The contact stated that while driving approximately 62 MPH, the front driver’s side door keypad detached an... Read more
Incident date: May 20, 2024
Rear camera stopped working.
Incident date: Apr 1, 2024
My vehicle Chrysler 200 2016 has several car mechanical issues. The shifting gears. Rough shifting while driving.The affected vehicle would lurch through gears, and it would sometimes shut down or automatically shift to neutral. Grinding or a crunching sound. Clutch slips or doesn't “feel right” Burning smell or high engine revs. Car started rough, shifting and having transmission problems a y... Read more
Incident date: May 1, 2024
The car keeps throwing a P0101 code. The MAF Sensor has been replaced and the throttle body has been clean and the engine light and code keep showing up. It is causing acceleration issues making it dangerous to start moving or going fast to get up to speed on the interstate.
Incident date: Aug 8, 2023
Vehicle randomly blinks coolant too hot, locks up and shuts down. All fluids are full and there is no reason for the warming. Has happened backing out of the driveway, going slow, and on the freeway. Very dangerous
Incident date: May 10, 2024
My 2023 Hyundai Palisade Calligraphy which I bought in July 2023 failed to start in May 2024 inside my house garage. It had an error message of "Check ESC" where ESC stands for electronic stability control. After trying a couple of more times to start it, it completely died. Had it tow to the dealer and after a few days in the dealer, they told me it was a dead battery. The car went from no wa... Read more
Incident date: May 16, 2024
The contact owns a 2015 Hyundai Genesis. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V107000 (Electrical System) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted and confirmed that the parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacture... Read more
Incident date: May 16, 2024
The engine has shut off on multiple occasions since we bought it in 2022. It appears to shut off at traffic lights and we are given the indicator message to start car manually. Typically when this happens we have to put the car in park and restart the engine. Just the other day 5/13/24 this happened again while I was sitting at a traffic light and I put the car in park and restarted the engine ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 20, 2024
The parking collision sensors occasionally stop working during the parking process going from active to fully inactive at the same time. While driving through the city the coward collision has ghost activations where the car believes an object is right in front when there is nothing there. The emergency braking activated once with nothing in front on the highway at speeds over 55 mph and applied... Read more
Incident date: Mar 20, 2024
The contact owns a 2018 Ford EcoSport. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the oil pressure warning light illuminated. The contact was able to pull over to the side of the road and inspect the vehicle; however, no failure was found. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who diagnosed the vehicle and determined that the engine needed to be replaced. The vehicle... Read more
Incident date: Mar 20, 2024
The contact owns a 2017 Ford F-150. The contact stated while attempting to start the vehicle, there was a rattling sound coming from the engine compartment. No warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer and the contact was informed that the cam phaser needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and referred the conta... Read more
Incident date: May 14, 2024
Since my short time of ownership I have had two specific issues with the car. One the safety features. The lane departure warning often doesn't work. The icon will stay unlit when veering out of lane. This is random but often. Next the automatic emergency braking system. The icon will show turned off randomly yet often. Forcing me to go back into the menu when the car is in stop to activate it a... Read more
Incident date: May 13, 2024
Multiple doors unexpectedly open. Door latches do not lock.
Incident date: May 13, 2024
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the driver’s side windshield was cracked. The contact also stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, she became aware of a crack on the passenger’s side windshield. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V031000 (Structure) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer ... Read more
Incident date: May 13, 2024
The contact owns a 2018 Ford Explorer. The contact stated that the driver’s side windshield was cracked. The contact also stated while driving at an undisclosed speed, she became aware of a crack on the passenger’s side windshield. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 24V031000 (Structure) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer ... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
The contact owns a 2019 Ford Fusion Energi. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V440000 (Electrical System) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The dealer was made aware of the issue. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue and confirm... Read more
Incident date: Mar 1, 2024
My drivers side quarter panel taillight has stopped working due to moisture in the light (no visible breakage on light), this was in January. This part is on continuous backorder with no ETA of coming back in stock. The light is an LED and therefore cannot replace just the bulb. I travel for work and drive through large cities and have no left turn signal or brake light which is extremally dangero... Read more
Incident date: May 4, 2024
Vehichle has stranded me twice with multiple error messages when I try to start it. All kinds of lights go on and off on the dash and messages include: Parking Brake Unavailable, Voltage Abnormality Steering Power Low, Hybrid System Not Available, Braking Power Low-Stop in a Safe Place, Antilock Brake System Malfuntion, Rear Cross Traffic Alert Unavailable, Blindspot Monitoring Unavailable, Pre-... Read more
Incident date: May 4, 2024
Vehichle has stranded me twice with multiple error messages when I try to start it. All kinds of lights go on and off on the dash and messages include: Parking Brake Unavailable, Voltage Abnormality Steering Power Low, Hybrid System Not Available, Braking Power Low-Stop in a Safe Place, Antilock Brake System Malfuntion, Rear Cross Traffic Alert Unavailable, Blindspot Monitoring Unavailable, Pre-... Read more
Incident date: May 7, 2024
The contact owns a 2015 Toyota Camry. The contact stated that while driving at undisclosed speeds, the check engine warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a local dealer where it was diagnosed that the transmission needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure and a case was opened. The failure mileage was approximately 64,000.
Incident date: Nov 14, 2023
The contact owns a 2018 Honda CR-V. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 23V858000 (Fuel System, Gasoline) however, the part to do the recall repair was not yet available. The local dealer was contacted and confirmed that parts were not yet available. The contact stated that the manufacturer had exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was... Read more
Incident date: Nov 14, 2023
engine code P2615 no power tun off in traffic pull out los power about got hit
Incident date: Apr 29, 2024
The rear K frame broke without being in an accident or other physical damage to the car.
Incident date: Apr 29, 2024
Service Advancetrac, 4WD Fault, Pre-Collision Assist not available, Hill-Assist warning lights turn on, cannot engage GOAT modes. dealership refuses power train warranty fix because it is “not a moving part” to replace the AWD Module
Incident date: Feb 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Edge. The contact stated that while attempting to sort groceries in the trunk of the vehicle, the tailgate suddenly fell, struck her back, and pushed her forward while the tailgate kept closing. After several attempts, the contact’s caregiver was able to stop the tailgate from lowering and crushing her. As a result, the contact sustained injuries on her left arm and ... Read more
1 injured
Incident date: Feb 1, 2023
The contact owns a 2016 Ford Edge. The contact stated that while attempting to sort groceries in the trunk of the vehicle, the tailgate suddenly fell, struck her back, and pushed her forward while the tailgate kept closing. After several attempts, the contact’s caregiver was able to stop the tailgate from lowering and crushing her. As a result, the contact sustained injuries on her left arm and ... Read more
1 injured
Incident date: Apr 25, 2024
Multiple times when driving the car, all sounds that the car makes will simply stop working. This includes things like the safety features and warning sounds, the turn signals, the radio, any map directions, etc. We have researched online for a solution and found others with similar problems, and we have reported the issue to the dealer on 3 different occasions - they took it into service and to... Read more
Incident date: Apr 25, 2024
Headlights are very dim. Seems like a well known problem, with recalls to other models. Very expensive to fix correctly.
Incident date: Apr 25, 2024
Purchased new vehicle (Kia Telluride) 4/27/24 and on 5/1/24 the windshield has a crack on the passenger side. Not even a week in or 100 miles and already a problem, how is this not covered under any warranty. 3rd time driving the car. Awful quality
Incident date: Apr 1, 2023
We were driving along the freeway at approximately 65 miles per hour. The car suddenly started to hesitate and then the engine cut completely out. We lost power steering and brakes when the engine cut out, but managed to get the vehicle to the shoulder of the road safely. There were no warning lights and the engine quit almost instantly. We had it towed to the Hyundai dealer and they said that the... Read more
Incident date: Apr 1, 2023
My vehicle is starting to shift hard and shake while trying to shift.
Incident date: Jan 14, 2024
The contact owns a 2015 Kia Sportage. The contact stated that while driving at approximately 55 MPH, there was a loud clanking sound coming from the engine compartment. There was no warning light illuminated. An independent mechanic was contacted and diagnosed the vehicle with a cracked rod bearing. The contact was informed that the engine needed to be replaced. The dealer was not contacted, and t... Read more
Incident date: Jan 14, 2024
On January 25, 2024 my son was driving this truck and hit a dog on the highway. His driver side airbag deployed, the driver side seatbelt would not retract, and there was some minor body damage. The engine of the vehicle is fine and completely operational. Since then, we have been waiting for repairs to be made. Per USAA, repairs will be approx $5000 or less. The vehicle is worth over $12,000 so ... Read more
Crash
Incident date: Apr 17, 2024
Several times while driving the automatic breaking function activated while there was no vehicle or obstacles in front of me. This caused the vehicle behind me to swerve in order to avoid hitting me.
Incident date: Apr 20, 2024
Took vehicle my 2018 FWD SUV Ford Escape to Ford dealership for routine oil change service including tire rotation with 34,250 mileage on vehicle. Was told could not rotate tires as lug nuts were swollen/distorted and needed to get new ones for replacement and that my vehicle's tire iron or other conventional wrench will not fit when this happens and equipment can break, etc. Ford DID NOT have a ... Read more
Incident date: Apr 23, 2024
I was accelerating onto the highway approaching 60 mph when a loud rapping noise began from the engine with a loss of power and seveare vibration almost causing me to lose control of the truck. Engine lights came on at the same time. I was able to pull over to the shoulder and shut the truck down. It would not restart after that. Dealer indicated snapped crank shaft and a replacement motor woul... Read more
Incident date: Apr 15, 2024
The Vehicle's Emission Control System has detected a restricted fuel vapor tube between the fuel tank pressure sensor and the fuel tank which could result in a fire. Service Engine Soon Warning